A diagnosis test performed on a patient in a medical environment often includes clinically examining or testing a number of diagnostic aspects of the patient. For each of the diagnostic aspects, a measurement value may be obtained and then used to evaluate a health condition of the patient at least for that particular diagnostic aspect. For example, a blood test performed on a patient may include diagnostic aspects such as a red blood cell count (RBC), a white cell count (WBC), a palette count (PLT), blood iron (i.e., amount of iron in the blood), glucose, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides, and the like. A measurement value, e.g., a measurement value of WBC of the patient, obtained as a result of the blood test, may be used to evaluate whether the patient is healthy or not at least in the aspect of white blood cell count of the patient. The measurement value may be obtained by a diagnostics measurement device, such as a blood test device, that performs the diagnosis test on the patient.
Conventionally, the measurement value is compared to a standard upper limit and a standard lower limit of the diagnostic aspect. The standard upper limit and the standard lower limit are a maximum allowable value and a minimum allowable value, respectively, that are medically allowed for the diagnostic aspect. The patient is deemed healthy in at least the diagnostic aspect if the measurement value falls between the standard upper limit and the standard lower limit. For example, the diagnostic aspect of WBC may have a medically defined standard range of 4−10×10{circumflex over ( )}9 counts per litter of blood, or 4−10×10{circumflex over ( )}9/L. On the one end of the standard range is a maximum allowable value of WBC of 10×10{circumflex over ( )}9/L, and on the other end of the standard range is a minimum allowable value of WBC of 4×10{circumflex over ( )}9/L. That is, the standard lower limit of WBC is 4×10{circumflex over ( )}9/L and the standard upper limit of WBC is 10×10{circumflex over ( )}9/L. If a patient has a WBC measurement of a value equal to or greater than the minimum allowable value and equal to or less than the maximum allowable value, e.g., 7.2×10{circumflex over ( )}9/L, then the patient is evaluated as healthy in at least the diagnostic aspect of WBC. On the other hand, if a patient has a WBC measurement of a value less than the minimum allowable value or greater than the maximum allowable value, e.g., 2×10{circumflex over ( )}9/L or 12×10{circumflex over ( )}9/L, then the patient is evaluated as unhealthy in at least the diagnostic aspect of WBC.
While the numerical form of the measurement value and the healthy range, as shown above, is technically accurate and substantially meaningful to well-trained medical practitioners, they may be less intuitive and hence difficult to comprehend for a layman. Without help from a medically-trained personnel, the patient, as a layman, may not be able to understand the significance or implications represented by the numbers regarding his or her own health condition.
Moreover, a medical fact of a developing disease, especially in an early stage of the disease, is that a measurement value of a diagnostic aspect related to the disease may already start to trend toward either the standard lower limit or the standard upper limit medically allowed for the diagnostic aspect, even though the measurement value may still be within the standard range of the diagnostic aspect (i.e., between the standard upper limit and the standard lower limit). In view of this medical fact, a few disadvantages are obvious in the aforementioned approach of evaluating a health condition of a patient. Firstly, a standard range of a diagnostic aspect is usually medically defined to be too wide (i.e., too “allowing”), which makes it difficult to raise an alarm of a disease that may still be in an early stage and developing. Secondly, since a patient is deemed healthy as long as the measurement value is within the standard range, a trend of change of the diagnostic aspect may not be tracked by a doctor or a medical practitioner. Thus, a development of a disease may be overlooked, especially when a symptom of the disease has not yet shown. A chance for preventing the symptom to develop may therefore be unintentionally missed.
In order to overcome the disadvantages regarding the conventional approach as mentioned above, and to have a better evaluation of a health condition, a method is needed to help raising an early alarm of a potentially developing disease by tracking or at least manifesting a trend of change in a measurement value of a diagnostic aspect of a patient. Meanwhile, a more intuitive representation may be developed as a health indicator to facilitate a readily understanding of the health condition from a layman's point of view.